


if you wanna dm me, that’s okay

by kylorithic



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Teachers, F/M, Masturbation, Sexting, What else is new, ben keeps thinking about rey naked when he’s teaching eleventh graders, ben solo has an internal struggle, poe just wants ben to get laid, poor guy, rey takes intiative
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-18
Updated: 2020-06-07
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:07:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24249286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kylorithic/pseuds/kylorithic
Summary: Ben picks up his phone, leaning back in his office chair as he swipes the app open to see what Rey has sent him this time.And promptly nearly falls out of his chair.He can’t believe what he’s seeing. He was expecting another stupid boomerang of Rose or a picture of food, but instead all he sees is what is very distinctly a woman’s chest. A woman’snakedchest.Oh fuck.or rey sends ben a naked photo of herself and ben is not sure where to go from here.
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 87
Kudos: 567





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> could it be? am i finally crossing the threshold and writing my first smut fic? what can i say, this pandemic has really done a number on me. and, yes, the title is a play on the kim possible theme song!
> 
> hope you enjoy and feel free to follow me on twitter at kylorithic!

The notification is innocent enough.

Ben isn’t that surprised to see that Rey has sent him something via Instagram. She tends to send him a lot of things - weird memes that remind her of him, boomerangs of her dinner choice of the day, photos of Rose with those weird filters everyone is so fond of (he honestly doesn’t get why anyone would want to know what WWE wrestler they’d be). To be honest, the only reason he has an Instagram in the first place is because Rey forced him to sign up for one after a week of constant nagging. She even got his students in on it before he felt like he had no choice.

(He just posts the occasional photo of pigeons that hang out on his fire escape. It’s weird, but Rey thinks it’s funny and well, he’s always been very interested in what Rey thinks.)

So, he looks up from the papers he’s grading when his phone buzzes, grateful for the brief distraction. Ben loves his students, but eleventh graders writing on the same topic can get very repetitive, and he can only read about Darcy and Elizabeth’s relationship from the point of view of a sixteen year old so many times before he wants to pull his hair out.

He picks up his phone, leaning back in his office chair as he swipes the app open to see what Rey has sent him this time.

And promptly nearly falls out of his chair.

Ben can’t believe what he’s seeing. He was expecting another stupid boomerang of Rose or a picture of food, but instead all he sees is what is very distinctly a woman’s chest. A woman’s _naked_ chest. 

Oh fuck.

Rey sent him what his students would call _noodz_ , if what’s written in the boys bathroom is anything to go off of. 

Her boobs are small, but seemingly perfect to him. He’s sure that he would be able to cup one of them in the palm of his hand with no trouble at all. There’s a dusting of freckles across the top of them, visible even with the tanned hue of her skin. Her nipples are pink.

Ben can see the bottom half of Rey’s face in the frame, because as creepy as it sounds, he’d recognize her mouth anywhere. Her tongue is sticking out slightly, as if she was concentrating on getting just the right angle before she took the photo.

He can’t breathe, he’s going to hyperventilate. This is how he dies, he’s sure.

Before he has a chance to do anything, though, the photo disappears and he’s looking back at the message screen between him and Rey. They had been talking about pasta just an hour ago, a seemingly normal conversation that would not normally lead to sending any sort of naked photos to each other. Why the hell would she send him a picture of her tits out of _nowhere?_

He’s known her for the past two years, ever since she got hired to teach math at the high school that he’s been working at for the past six years. Ben still remembers the first time he saw her, when she entered the teacher’s lounge on her first day before classes to introduce herself to everyone. She had been wearing dark jeans and a bright red blouse covered in flowers. She had introduced herself to him last, if only because he hadn’t moved from the back corner he had been lingering in due to being overwhelmed by her sudden presence. 

It didn’t take too long for them to become friends, if only because Rey had on insisted on inserting herself into his life like it was her duty or something. She would invite him out to lunch, visit him in his classroom during her free period, and occasionally, she would invite him out with some of the other teachers when they went out to TGI Fridays after a long work week. It was kind of annoying. 

But, honestly, it was nice, feeling included. Besides Poe, the history teacher who’s class is across the hall, Ben hadn’t really managed to make any other friends with his various co-workers.

Poe enjoys teasing him about “the crush” he swears Ben has on Rey. Ben enjoys telling Poe to fuck right off.

Did he think Rey was attractive? Well, sure, of course he did - he wasn’t _blind_. And did he maybe have a slight crush on her that he only thought about when he was alone and feeling desperate? _Maybe_. But they don’t...do whatever the hell this was. Rey was a friend, _just a friend_ , who had never showed any interest in being any more than that before today and Ben was fine with that, perfectly fine.

He stares down at his phone, seemingly at a loss for words. Where does he go from here? Does she expect him to send her one back? Would she even _want_ to see whatever he had to offer h(is dick was already starting to quickly respond, it wouldn’t really be a problem)? Is that how this usually worked? Ben hasn’t been on a date in _years_ , he’s out of practice with this whole sexting thing. Is it even called that anymore?!

Before he has a chance to get too deep in his thoughts, though, his phone suddenly buzzes in his hand and he nearly sends it flying across the room.

He tells himself that he needs to relax as he pulls up the Instagram app again and sees a new message from Rey.

 **reyofsunshine**  
_Oh my god ben  
Please tell me you didn’t see that_

So, it _had_ been an accident. Of course, it was, what else would it have been? She had probably meant to send it to someone else, someone who she most definitely wanted to have sex with, and that person was not Ben. He wishes it didn’t sting as much as it did.

He must have been moping too long, because his phone buzzes again with another message from Rey.

 **reyofsunshine**  
_Ben?  
Oh no I fucked this all up_

If there’s one thing Ben has always been good at, it’s ignoring a problem and pretending it never existed in the first place. He calls it _survival_ , his mom calls it _repressing your emotions._

Whatever.

 **bensolo**  
_I’m not sure what you’re referring to, I didn’t see anything.  
I think I deleted it by accident._

 **reyofsunshine**  
_Oh thank JESUS_

 **bensolo**  
_What? Did you send me another photo of you attempting to cook chicken again?_

 **bensolo**  
_First of all that chicken turned out GREAT  
Second it was nothing  
Just something embarrassing_

He wonders if he should just tell her, but it’s too late now. If he admits he actually saw the photo of her boobs, she’s going to think he’s some sort of weirdo for lying to her about it and then that will be the end of his friendship with Rey. He’d be left both heartbroken _and_ horny.

He _had_ to get a grip.

 **bensolo**  
_Now I’m disappointed I missed out on it._

 **reyofsunshine**  
_Haha  
It wasn’t that great, I promise_

 **bensolo**  
_Whatever you say, Rey._

 **reyofsunshine**  
_PINKY PROMISE  
See you tomorrow for lunch?_

Ben hesitates replying for a moment. It’s not that he normally tries to eat lunch with Rey, because he doesn’t. They share a lunch period and she’s always hanging out in the teacher’s lounge with her little sack lunch and it’s not like Ben _enjoys_ going off campus to get lunch and his classroom can feel so empty at times and the teacher’s lounge was right down the hall - eating lunch together just made sense.

You know, logistically speaking.

 **bensolo**  
_You got it._

He places his phone back down on his desk and turns back to the stack of essays he still has to finish grading. Ben is not entirely sure how he’s going to focus now that he has the image of Rey’s naked chest imprinted on his brain, but he’s going to have to figure it out because they were not going to grade themselves.

He picks up his red pen and focuses his attention on _Pride & Prejudice_, and not on his dick that is still begging for attention in his pants.

He’s a fucking adult, he can _handle_ it.

———

Ben can’t handle it.

It’s been three days since Rey accidentally sent him the boomerang of her chest and Ben _can’t stop thinking about it._

He thinks about it when he passes her in the hallways at school, when he sits across from her as they’re eating lunch, when she waves at him from across the parking lot when he’s leaving the building. Ben has never been more aware of _how often_ they see each other at work than he has this past week.

It’s just he can’t look at her without thinking _I know what you look like underneath that shirt_ and Rey, beautiful, wonderful Rey, has blessedly not noticed anything out of the ordinary. Yes, she eyes him weirdly when he quickly looks away when she catches him staring, and yes, she might have teased him for being even _quieter_ than usual, but that was nothing new, really.

She keeps sending him Instagram messages, too. Ben feels slightly guilty every time he opens one, because there’s a brief moment where he thinks it might be another one of _those_ photos and he feels that familiar twinge of disappointment when it’s not.

It’s a problem.

He feels like he’s fourteen again, when he snuck into his parent’s room and found an old Playboy. He had never seen a naked woman in his life before then and suddenly he had an entire magazine full of them. He had hidden the magazine underneath his bed and jerked off more times that summer than was probably healthy, like any teenage boy going through puberty would have done in his shoes.

However, he draws the line at getting himself off to the thought of her, because that way lies madness and he has way too much respect for her to ever even _consider_ doing that, no matter how tempting the image is. 

Is this what it feels like to lose your mind?

He’s sitting in his classroom during his free period a few days later, trying to figure out his lesson plan for the next week, but he keeps getting distracted by the same damn image that has been plaguing his thoughts. He has to get it together, because if he doesn’t, he’s sure his lessons are going to start suffering from it. Jenny, the junior from his first period class, had asked him if he was _sick_ this morning when he stumbled over the correct pronunciation of Franz Kafka’s _La metamorfsi_.

Could he get a doctor’s note for infatuation? Maybe he could get cleared for the rest of the year and then he wouldn’t have to see Rey’s face for eight months. Forced distancing, that might work - self-isolation, if you will.

“Did someone die, Solo?”

Ben jumps at the sudden voice, knocking over his cup of pens that he keeps on his desk and sending them sprawling all over the papers he has scattered on it. He looks up in the doorway and is greeted by the sight of Poe, a concerned look on his face.

“Jesus, you alright? I was mostly kidding about the someone dying part, but if someone did actually die, you need to tell me so I can properly adjust to how I approach this conversation.”

Ben manages to wrangle all his pens back into place and levels him with a glare. “Nobody died, you just caught me off guard.”

Poe lets out a low whistle. “Ben Solo, being caught off guard? Is Mercury in retrograde? Has the sky _actually_ fallen?”

“Shut up,” he replies. The other man takes it as an invitation to enter Ben’s classroom, shutting the door behind him and leaning against the corner of Ben’s desk.

“So, what’s got you all riled up this afternoon?” 

It’s a simple enough question, one that Ben can answer in the easiest of ways. He can just tell Poe that he had a rough morning and forgot his coffee or something - everyone he worked with knew how cranky Ben could get without his morning caffeine fix. But there’s something about the way Poe is looking at him, like he might actually be concerned, and maybe it would be nice to have someone else know the internal struggle that he is currently dealing with.

And, really, Poe’s the only other friend he has here, besides Rey, and he _definitely_ wasn’t going to talk to her about this.

“Have you ever...gotten a naked picture from someone?”

Poe pauses in his hunt to find a Starburst that _wasn’t_ yellow (Ben liked lemon, okay) from the jar that Ben kept on his desk. He looks up with something close to disbelief on his face. “Are you serious?”

“Why would I not be serious about this?” Ben asks.

“You mean like a nude, right?” Poe’s eyebrows are scrunched on his forehead, like Ben had asked him what was the answer to the meaning of life and expected him to only answer in Nirvana lyrics. 

Ben lets out a huff, making to stand up from behind his desk. He knew asking Poe would be a bad idea, the guy was more immature than half the students Ben dealt with on a daily basis. “If you’re going to make fun of me, you can just get out of here -“

“What? No, Ben, I’m sorry, you just surprised me,” he quickly explains, setting the Starburst jar down with a thunk back on the desk. “I came in to ask if you had a spare whiteboard marker, I wasn’t expected to be bombarded with sexting questions.”

“I did not bombard you,” Ben replies with an eye roll.

“Noted.” Poe is staring at him, trying to figure out Ben’s motive to get an answer to this frankly _bizarre_ question, Ben’s sure. “But to answer you, yes, I have exchanged nude photos before.”

Ben really shouldn’t be surprised, he shouldn’t but - “Really?”

“Am I sensing some slight judgement in your tone, Solo? Because I can just _not_ help you, you know.” The other man makes a move like he’s going to walk back out of Ben’s classroom and Ben can’t have that happen, not now that he finally gathered the courage to ask someone for help.

“No, not at all,” he quickly states, trying to sound as apologetic as possible and offering Poe the jar of candy again. He takes it with a slight smirk on his face.

“That’s what I thought. Why do you want to know?”

Ben could, technically, lie at this point. Say that he heard some students talking about it, or another teacher. Say that he saw something on Netflix last night. But Poe has always been too good at calling out Ben on his bullshit, so he tells him the truth. “Someone sent me one. Out of the blue.”

If Ben could describe the look on Poe’s face _now_ , the only word he’d only be able to come up with is proud. “Look at you, Solo! I’ve been telling you that you need to get laid for ages now.”

He sighs. “Thank you for the reminder.”

“Who was it?” 

Ben’s caught off guard by the question, sputtering as he pretends to rearrange his pens in his cup again. “I’m not going to tell you that, that’s a horribly invasive question -”

“Oh, so I know her, got it.” Poe’s nodding, the _asshole_.

“What? I didn’t say that!”

“You didn’t have to, your answer said it all.”

“You are insufferable, you know that?” Ben honestly questions why he continues to be friends with this man after putting up with his personality for this long.

Poe waves his hand, like he’s brushing off Ben’s statement, _which he is_. “You tell me at least twice a week, but yet, here you are, seeking me for advice.”

He’s staring at the cup in his hands, throat feeling a lot drier than it did a few minutes ago. “They told me it was an accident.”

“Oh.”

He peers up at Poe, who’s looking at him with a curious look in his eye. “Oh? What does that mean?”

“I don’t know, I’ve never been accidentally sent a nude before, this is new territory.”

Slumping back in his chair, Ben sighs. “Wonderful.”

“Did you send one back?”

He scoffs. “Of course I didn’t.”

Poe points a finger at him. “Judging again, Solo.”

“Sorry.”

Another wave of Poe’s hand. “So, what’s the problem? If you didn’t ask for it and they accidentally sent it to you, ignore the nude and move on.”

“What if we’re friends? And I have to see this person on a daily basis?” Ben feels like he whispered that last part, but Poe looks like Ben shouted it across the room. He looks straight up _gleeful_. Ben’s suddenly terrified by this sudden change in attitude.

“Oh my god,” Poe chokes out.

“What?” He demands.

“It’s Rey, isn’t it?”

His brain screeches to a halt inside his head, because How is Poe so good at figuring things out that Ben does his best to hide? This is why Ben never tells him that he got him a Christmas present, because the one year he made that mistake, Poe somehow managed to get him to admit what it was two weeks before the holiday. He’s a damn _menace_.

Poe takes Ben’s silence as the only answer he needs. 

“Oh my fucking god, she sent you a nude, this is amazing. I _knew_ she liked you.”

Ben shakes his head, refusing to listen to this nonsense. “No, she does not, did you forget the part where I said she told me it was an accident?”

Poe seemingly ignores his question. “How long did it take you to respond?”

“What?” What does that have to do with _any_ of this?

Poe plants both of his palms on his desk and leans forward until they’re both eye level. It’s slightly more than a little unnerving. “To her picture, how long did it take you to reply?”

Ben racks his brain for an answer, but can’t quite remember. That whole incident seemed like it both dragged on forever and went by too quickly in his mind. “I don’t know, a couple minutes, maybe?”

“Dude, she thought you weren’t interested, that’s why she said it was an ‘accident.’ You didn’t immediately respond and she panicked.” He’s shaking his head now, stepping back from Ben’s desk to cross his arms over his chest.

“You really think that’s what happened?” He’s not going to get excited by this idea, _he’s not…_

“I _know_ that’s what happened, trust me.”

...too late. “She likes me?”

“Duh, idiot. No one chooses to endure you for lunch that many times a week without having some sort of ulterior motive.”

“Thanks, Poe,” hehuffs out, rolling his eyes.

“You know what I mean.”

Ben can feel himself beginning to panic. He had toyed with the idea of Rey sending him that photo on purpose, but only briefly because that idea was _insane_. But Poe was an outsider to this whole thing, he saw the two of them from a different perspective, and if he thought Rey might like Ben, might reciprocate his feelings, well...this was an entirely different situation he was dealing with now.

“I don’t know what to do now. What do I do?” If his voice sounds slightly higher pitch than normal, Ben chooses to ignore it.

“First, calm down, I can see you freaking out from here,” Poe instructs. “Second - ask her out? Like a normal person?”

Ben shakes his head. “What if she says no? What if she thinks I’m insane?”

“She’s going to say yes.”

“Stop being so confident about this!” He nearly shouts, practically slamming his hands down on the top of his desk. 

“One of us has to!” Poe shouts back, and Ben has never been more grateful that the entire hall shares a free period and now one is around to hear them yell at each other about Ben’s love life. “Listen, Solo, you like Rey, she likes you. You guys have been dancing around each other for two years and she finally sent a damn _hint_ so it’s time for you to man up and seize the motherfucking day, okay?”

Ben can’t help the chuckle that escapes him. “Relax, Dead Poets Society.”

“Ben.” Poe is glaring at him now.

“Okay, okay, fine. I’ll...think about it.” 

The other man rolls his eyes and starts walking toward the door to Ben’s classroom. “No, you’re going to do it or I’m going to tell your mother who actually damaged her prized azaleas last spring.”

His eyes widen. “You wouldn't.”

“Try me,” Poe replies, stopping at the door to throw Ben a smirk over his shoulder.

“You dick.”

Poe throws open the door, stepping out into the hall. “Text me after you guys bone! I don’t want the details, I just want to know my boy finally got some.”

“I literally hate you,” Ben grinds out, tossing him a subtle middle finger from the safety of his desk.

“Love you too, bud!” With that, Poe blows a kiss and disappears into his classroom across the hall.

Ben really needs to get some new friends.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He could do it right now. He could just ask her while they’re all alone in the parking lot with no one to watch him make an utter fool of himself as he tries to ask out the prettiest woman he’s ever seen in his life. Ben could ask her if she wanted to get dinner tomorrow, or maybe see that new period movie she was talking about a few weeks ago during one of their lunch breaks.
> 
> Maybe she’d say yes. 
> 
> Maybe she wouldn’t laugh in his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so, turns out that i couldn’t stop my word vomit, so this is now going to be three chapters, whoop!
> 
> please remember to take care of yourself during these crazy times. stay informed, stay alert, and stay strong. <3

Despite Poe’s threats to rat him out to his mother (he had _fallen_ on the azaleas after tripping, okay, it wasn’t like he had viciously torn them to shreds), Ben doesn’t ask Rey that day.

Or the next.

Or the day after that.

Poe keeps bugging him about it, sending Ben weird looks across the hall when they both happen to have their doors open. Ben resolutely pretends to ignore his existence every time and takes to keeping his door shut in between periods.

It’s not that he doesn’t want to ask Rey out - he _definitely_ does - it’s just that every time he manages to work up a semblance of courage to do so, he finds himself talking himself out of it. It’s not his fault, he swears - his subconscious just always decides that it’s the opportune time to remind him that she told him the whole DM thing was an _accident._ Reminds him that if Rey really liked him like Poe seems to think she does, she would have made a move a lot sooner because she definitely was the take charge type of girl. She didn’t seem like she would wait around for Ben to get his head out of his ass and make a move if she had a _crush_ on him.

Why did this have to be so confusing? Why does his self-esteem have to be in the literal pits of hell? Why can’t he just function like a normal fucking guy and just ask the girl he likes out on a date?

There were a few times he found himself lingering outside her classroom door during his free period, hand poised to knock on the closed door before his nerves got the best of him and he darted out of there before she caught him.

Ben’s internal struggle with himself has led to him, maybe, possibly, skipping out on his and Rey’s usual shared lunch hour more than once this week. He finds thing to do his classroom, papers to grade or what material he’s going to put on the final exam before winter break. He’s busy and there’s nothing wrong with trying to take initiative in his profession. 

It’s Thursday and Ben finds himself walking to his car in the staff parking lot to figure out where he’s going to hide out for his lunch hour. Panera Bread was always a good option?

“Ben! Wait!” 

The sound of Rey’s voice is like a bucket of ice being dumped over his head. _Oh shit, oh fuck, how is he going to get out of this?_ His mind is going a mile a minute, trying to find a way to escape, but there’s no way to avoid her and still look like it was an accident, not when he can hear her heels clacking behind him.

Realizing he’s still yards away from his car, he takes a steadying breath and plasters on as normal of a smile as he can muster before turning around to face her.

“Rey, hi,” he calls out, noticing that she’s wearing some sort of button up shirt. She must have been running after him, because she looks out of breath, slightly hunched over, chest heaving. From his height, if he craned his neck just so, he’d be able to see the top of her bra _just_ peeking out - he very pointedly makes an effort to look at her face.

“Christ, I need to work on my cardio,” she huffs out, giving him a small smile. 

His brain very helpfully pipes up that there were a multitude of ways that he could help with that, ones that mostly consisted of her riding him while he sat in his desk chair back in his classroom.

“Right,” he manages to choke out as he internally screams at his dick to calm down.

“Where are you going? We haven’t had lunch all week,” Rey asks. Ben wishes she didn’t sound so _sad_ about it. It makes him feel even more guilty about this whole situation.

“Um, doctor’s appointment.” It’s the most believable thing he can come up and he hopes she doesn’t ask too many questions.

“Oh, are you okay?”

He nods stiffly. “Yeah, of course, I’m fine, I’m just, um, picking up a prescription.”

“Right.” She sounds like she doesn’t _fully_ believe him, but she doesn’t press it any further. They stand there in awkward silence, Ben staring very pointedly at the top of Rey’s head while she looks down at her shoes. He’s not sure what else to say, thinking that maybe it would be best if he just said his goodbyes and then hid in his car for an hour, when Rey pipes up.

“I’ve missed you, you know,” she states, voice sounding shy. “The teacher’s lounge isn’t the same if you’re not there to help talk shit about the terrible coffee Hux insists on making for everyone.”

The laugh he lets out sounds strained and forced. He was _terrible_ at this. “Sorry, I’ve just been busy with grading and, you know, teacher things.”

“Teacher things?” Rey shoots him an odd look.

“Final exam prep. Those guide sheets aren’t going to make themselves.” It’s not the worst excuse he’s ever come up with, but it is still pretty bad. He usually does his exam prep stuff with both Rey and Poe, since it makes the tedious task slightly more enjoyable, and now he’s going to have to do it by himself because he was a fucking coward. _Great._

Rey nods, looking down at her shoes again, but Ben notices the furrow between her brows before she fixes a smile on her face and looks up at him. “Of course, well, I’ll see you?”

He could do it right now. He could just ask her out while they’re all alone in the parking lot with no one to watch him make an utter fool of himself as he tries to ask out the prettiest woman he’s ever seen in his life. Ben could ask her if she wanted to get dinner tomorrow, or maybe see that new period movie she was talking about a few weeks ago during one of their lunch breaks. Maybe she’d say yes. Maybe she wouldn’t laugh in his face.

But the words don’t come and he just nods before giving her a wave and continuing the walk to his car. He makes sure not to look back until he gets in and when he looks in his rear view mirror, he’s greeted by the sight of Rey making the trek back onto campus.

Ben spends his lunch break in the parking lot of the local McDonald’s, forgoing a healthy option and instead attempting to eat his weight in overly salted fries and chicken nuggets.

Maybe he’ll do it tomorrow.

Maybe.

———

Ben manages to successfully avoid Rey for the rest of the school day. It helps that all the math classrooms are on the other side of campus. He practically _sprints_ to his car once the final bell rings.

Poe sends him a text when he gets to his car.

**Poe D.**  
_Benjamin did i just see you RUNNING FULL SPEED out of your classroom_

Ben doesn’t know how Poe manages to notice things when Ben really, really doesn’t want him to. It’s like he lives to call Ben out on his bullshit.

**Ben**  
_I had an emergency._

**Poe D.**  
_Does your emergency consist of you being a punk ass bitch  
Because i have noticed you avoiding rey  
Which means YOU HAVE NOT ASKED HER OUT YET_

**Ben**  
_I’m going to do it, okay?  
Tomorrow._

**Poe D.**  
_Surreeeee  
I will tell your mom, benjamin  
YOU KNOW I WILL_

Ben sighs and curses the day that he invited Poe over to his parent’s house for Thanksgiving three years ago because the combination of the history teacher and Ben’s mother was one that never needed to come to fruition.

**Ben**  
_Because you live to torment me._

**Poe D.**  
_I just want you to be happy  
And also get laid  
Mostly the second part_

**Ben**  
_Tomorrow. I will do it tomorrow._

**Poe D.**  
_ヾ(＠^∇^＠)ノ_

Poe is worse than Ben’s students sometimes, he swears, but Ben supposes that’s why Poe is considered the “popular teacher” while he’s the one the kids dread getting stuck with at the beginning of the year because he never grades on a curve.

(It’s not _realistic_ , he argues any time someone brings it up. Life doesn’t work that way and it isn’t graded on a curve, so neither should your essay on the literary themes in _Of Mice and Men_ , Jeremy from seventh period).

**Ben**  
_I don’t even know how you typed that in your phone._

**Poe D.**  
_Ok boomer_

Ben thunks his head against the steering wheel. 

Again, Poe was a fucking _menace_.

—-

His phone buzzes shortly after Ben gets back to his apartment, when he’s settled down on his couch to grade the quiz he gave out earlier this week. He sees the Instagram notification from Rey on his screen and his heart does a treacherous little loop at the sight of it, mostly because he still hasn’t managed to make it fully comprehend that it was _not_ going to be another naked photo.

He slides his finger over the screen and is greeted by a simple text, no photo to be seen.

**reyofsunshine**  
_Are you avoiding me_

Ben’s heart does another little loop, but this one is caused by nothing but dread. He was afraid of this happening, that his weird behavior would push Rey away. He has to try to salvage this, _somehow_.

**bensolo**  
_Why would you think that?_

**reyofsunshine**  
_Because I haven’t seen you all week and I’m pretty sure I saw you run from me the other day  
And also that wasn’t a no_

He wishes that he had more courage, that he had more guts to just come out and say that he’s been thinking about her naked for the past two weeks and he’s slowly losing his mind because of it. He wishes he had the courage to ask her if she meant to send him that photo of her boobs and what she hoped to get out of doing it. 

He can hear Poe’s voice calling him a _punk ass bitch_ again as he types his response.

**bensolo**  
_Rey, there’s literally no reason for me to be avoiding you.  
It’s been a rough week.  
I’ve been distracted._

_To put it lightly_ , he thought to himself.

**reyofsunshine**  
_You can talk to me about it, you know  
That’s what friends are for_

And there’s that word again: friends. Ben tries to ignore the disappointment he feels at reading it. This is why he didn’t want to believe Poe when he said that Rey had a crush on him, that she _reciprocated_ his feelings, because when she said stuff like that, it was very easy for himself to believe she would never see him as anything more than that. His students called it being “friend zoned” and it sucked.

**bensolo**  
_It’s personal and I don’t really want to talk about it.  
But I appreciate the thought.  
Thank you._

Her reply takes a while to come back. Ben keeps seeing _reyofsunshine is typing_ pop up, only to disappear again. It’s almost as if she’s trying to decide what she’s going to say, but keeps changing her mind.

It’s the most stressful two minutes Ben has had recently.

**reyofsunshine**  
_You are most welcome  
Offer still stands!!!_

He wishes that Rey wasn’t being so understanding about this, wishes that she would tell him to fuck right off and call him an asshole - especially with the way he’s apparently been making her stress out for the past week with his frankly _weird_ behavior. Ben doesn’t deserve kindness or understanding right now, he deserves to maybe get shoved in a cold shower and told to calm the hell down.

He turns back to the papers that he’s grading on his coffee table, the stacks a mixture of black ink and red pen marks. He picks up the one he was working on, but it becomes apparent that he’s not going to be able to focus when he reads the introduction paragraph on one essay four times and isn’t able to process it.

With a sigh, he slumps back against the couch and stares at the ceiling.

He’s too keyed up, both by the fact that he lied to Rey for what seems like the fiftieth time and the fact that he hasn’t touched his dick in two weeks.

Now that he thinks about it, this is the longest he’s gone without getting himself off in a long time. Ben feels like he’s been walking around with a semi hard-on in his pants for that entire time, which is _terrible_ if most of your job consists of standing in front of a bunch of teenage students who probably think about sex way more than one should at their age. He wonders if it’s unhealthy, tempted to WebMD himself just to see what ridiculous answer the internet will give him.

 _Can I spontaneously combust from not masturbating?_ It sounds stupid, even to him.

The problem is that every time he thinks about getting himself off, his brain is assaulted by the image of Rey’s naked chest and he should not get off to images of good friends, it was just...wrong. He’s _not_ that kind of person. He is a gentleman and not a creep.

But.

Ben has to jerk off or he’s going to die, there’s nothing else to it. He needs a release, he _needs_ to come so he can get his mind to focus on these quizzes that needed grading. He had a life outside of thinking about Rey and if jerking off would help him get back to normal, then he would take one for the damn team.

It doesn’t take long for him to undo his belt buckle and hurriedly open his fly. He’s already half-hard as he pulls himself out of his boxers, his cock giving an excited twitch at the much-needed pressure his hand provides.

He’s too worked up to walk to his bedroom and get the lotion he keeps on his desk, so as gross as it is, he spits in his hand before he starts to stroke himself. The relief he feels is almost instantaneous, and Ben has never had a religious experience, but this is pretty damn close.

Ben closes his eyes as his hand speeds up. He would usually be gentler with himself, to start off with, but his hand has other ideas and it feels _too damn good_.

Why did he put off doing this for so long? He was an _idiot_. But thinking about why he’s been anti-masturbating just brings Rey to mind. As much as he tries to keep his thoughts clear, his brain has other ideas and the mental image that has been haunting him slams it’s way to the forefront of his thoughts.

Ben shouldn’t think about it, he shouldn’t and yet -

Rey was gorgeous, easily the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She was smaller than he was, so much smaller, but Ben was pretty sure that she could kick his ass on any given day. Rey had an _amazing_ ass, especially when she wore her tight jeans on casual Fridays and Ben found himself distracted every time he tried not to stare. She also had great legs, tanned, freckled ones that went on _for days_ , that Ben had imagined wrapped around his waist once or twice. 

His hips jerk up as he slumps further down the couch, fisting himself harder and harder as he gets closer to release. This was bad, he had to stop himself, but he’s so fucking close —

As much as he tried not to her of her chest, now that Ben has the mental image of what Rey looks like underneath all the shirts she wears, it’s too hard not to. 

He thinks about how her nipples are the same color as her lips.

He thinks about how soft one of her tits would probably feel in his palm. 

He thinks about how they’d probably bounce if he fucked her hard enough.

With that thought, Ben comes hard with a low groan, his spend shooting out from the end of his cock. He strokes himself through it, until the pressure becomes too much for his over-sensitive dick and he pulls his now sticky hand away. He takes deep breaths to slow down his racing heart, looking down at the mess he made. It’s going to be a pain to get the come stain out of his couch. 

Worth it.

Ben sits there for what seems like hours before he tells himself that he should probably get up and clean himself up so he can get back to grading. As he moves to stand, his phone that’s laying on the table lights up with a new notification.

**reyofsunshine liked your photo**

The groan he lets out this time is filled with nothing but dread. He did it, he did the _one thing_ he swore to himself that he wasn’t going to do. He came to the thought of one of his best friend’s _naked_. His best friend that he’s supposed to _ask out tomorrow_. How is he even going to look her in the eye without feeling like a total creep?

He’s fucked.


End file.
